This invention relates to a child support device and specifically to a device for supporting children of different ages, such as in a restaurant atmosphere.
When families go to a restaurant or other similar facility for dining, they often include small children. The children may be small toddlers or even smaller infants. Therefore, for a pleasurable dining experience for the entire family, and particularly the adults of the party, the small children must be properly and safely accommodated at the table.
While larger children are often able to sit in regular adult chairs, some with the aid of a traditional booster seat, the smaller toddler and infant children require special arrangements. For example, traditional high chairs have long been available for toddler children who are able to sit up on their own, but who are yet too small to sit in an adult chair, even with a booster seat. Furthermore, high chairs are particularly suitable for rambunctious toddlers for whom a certain amount of containment is desired during a meal. High chairs provide certain restraints, such as belts, for a child placed therein, and therefore, provide peace of mind for the parents or care givers during the meal. Additionally, the seating platform for the toddler child is generally smaller than in an adult chair, thereby helping the child to remain in an upright position.
While traditional high chairs have been suitable for toddler children who can sit on their own, they are entirely inadequate for infant children who do not yet have the motor skills to do so. Infants are generally brought to restaurants in an infant carrier, often referred to as a xe2x80x9cpumpkin seat.xe2x80x9d Infant carriers usually include a cradle-shaped base for comfortably carrying or supporting the infant. A pivoting handle is attached to the base so an adult may manipulate the carrier. When dining with an infant child, parents often have to place the infant carrier and infant on the table, on a chair (if large enough) or on the floor.
All of those available options for placement of the infant carrier are undesirable. Not only is the carrier exposed to the chances of falling, but oftentimes there is not sufficient table space for placing the carrier thereon. Furthermore, a chair may be too small to accommodate the carrier. Even if the chair is large enough, the awkward and cumbersome shape of infant carriers often requires that the chair and carrier be wedged against the table to ensure that the carrier does not fall off of the chair. This can present a precarious, and therefore, dangerous situation for the infant. Finally, placing the infant and carrier on a dirty, drafty restaurant floor is certainly an option to be avoided, even though it is often the safest of the available options.
One option, but one which is dangerous and discouraged or prohibited by many restaurants, is to turn a traditional high chair structure upside-down and place the infant carrier in the wide base of the chair. In doing so, the chair rests and contacts the floor on the very narrow seat portion. Therefore, the upside-down chair is very likely to fall, which could injure a baby placed thereon. Furthermore, the restaurant could be exposed to legal liability for an injured child. While such an option is discouraged, parents will still choose to do so, and restaurants will allow them for the purposes of accommodation or lack of a more suitable option.
Attempts have also been made to develop a support device specifically for infant carriers. Many such structures are expensive and complicated and are only adapted to a specific carrier design. If a restaurant does not have a specific device for the family""s infant carrier, the parents have to carry their own support device. As may be appreciated, it is very inconvenient and time-consuming to have to transport and set up such a device in a restaurant.
One type of device for supporting a variety of different infant carriers consists of a sling stretched between two support elements. The sling forms a hammock to receive the carrier. Such a device is usually suitable for the purpose of supporting the carrier above the floor, regardless of the shape of the carrier. However, such devices must be purchased and maintained by a restaurant in addition to their other separate high chair structures.
Another commercially available product purports to be suitable for both infants and toddlers. Essentially, the product is a traditional high chair which can recline for cradling an infant. However, such a product requires that the infant be removed from its carrier and placed in the plastic seat of the product. For a parent, such a scenario is not desirable. First, the plastic seat is hard and cold, and may even be dirty. Personal infant carriers usually have cushions on which the baby rests and the parents know that their carrier is clean. Therefore, the parents will be reluctant to switch the baby from their personal carrier to a public high chair device. Secondly, the infant may be nestled in blankets and other such covers, and may even be sleeping. Having to wake the infant and/or move all of the blankets to the public high chair device would further deter use of such a product. Finally, the parents or the restaurant staff are left with trying to store the bulky, empty infant carrier during the meal.
Therefore, it would seem that the only practical option is to maintain a large number of dedicated infant carrier support devices. A significant drawback, however, to any dedicated infant carrier support device, is that the restaurant must keep a number of such devices on hand, and also must obtain separate high chair structures for toddler children, and booster seats for older children. Available infant carrier support devices and high chairs are large and bulky, and therefore, require a substantial amount of floor space. While some high chair structures and infant carrier support devices are stackable, generally they are not.
Another drawback is the additional purchase and replacement costs for separate devices. However, restaurants, and particularly family-type restaurants, desire to keep their family patrons not only satisfied, but also comfortable with the thought that their children will be safe during the dining experience. Therefore, they maintain a large number of different devices to do so.
Another drawback to having a large number of dedicated support devices, is the cleaning required for such structures. Food is usually splattered all over by toddler children and may also be splattered by older infant children. Of course, parents do not want to place their child in a high chair or other device which is still dirty from the previous child. Therefore, the work loads of waitpersons, buspersons, and hosts are all increased to ensure clean high chairs and infant carrier support devices.
Therefore, it is one objective of the invention to accommodate dining families so that their children of all ages are safe and secure during the meal.
It is another objective of the invention to accommodate both toddler children and infant children during dining.
It is still another objective of the invention to reduce the costs to the restaurant owner and the reduce workloads of the staff associated with such accommodation.
It is another objective of the invention to safely provide support to a child during a meal which is above the floor and off of the table.
Still further, it is an objective to provide such accommodation in a safe manner to reduce the liability exposure of a restaurant owner.
The above-listed objectives and other objectives are addressed by the present invention which provides a multi-purpose child support device which can accommodate both a toddler child as well as an infant child who is resting in an infant carrier. The multi-purpose child support device of the present invention selectively secures the children of either toddler or infant age so that they are safe and secure during the meal. The child is supported above the floor and off of the table at a relatively low cost to the restaurant owner. Furthermore, since a single device is used for both toddler and infant children, the purchase and maintenance costs to the restaurant owner are reduced and the workloads of the various staff persons in the restaurant are also reduced. Still further, the safety of the device reduces the liability exposure of the restaurant owner.
The inventive child support device may be readily and selectively converted from a toddler mode to an infant mode and then back again. It includes a frame having a base section which is placed on a floor surface and a support section above the base section for supporting the child. In the toddler mode, a seat element is configured for receiving a toddler child in the sitting position. The seat element engages the support section of the frame above the floor surface for forming a high chair for a toddler child. Like a traditional high chair, the toddler child is maintained in a seated and upright position. The may eat at a table and interact with other children and adults sitting at the table.
The inventive child support device is selectively adaptable to the infant mode for receiving an infant child carrier when a child is too young to be able to sit up on their own in a high chair, and thus must remain resting in the infant carrier during the meal. To that end, the seat element is displaceably mounted to the frame and is operable for being selectively displaced from the support section. The support section, in turn, is configured to receive an infant carrier when the seat element is selectively displaced therefrom, and is further operable for safely supporting the infant carrier above the floor surface.
In one embodiment of the invention, the seat element may be removed from the support section and frame altogether. The support section is then configured to receive an infant carrier to support the infant carrier above a floor surface. In such an embodiment, the upper edge of the support section, and specifically, the upper edges of the vertical side members of the frame, have open portions, such as in the form of indentations formed therein, or cut-away sections. The indentations or cutaway sections are configured for receiving and containing handle portions of an infant child carrier to secure the carrier in the support section of the frame. The support section prevents the carrier from sliding therefrom. When in the infant mode, horizontal cross members engage a bottom or side surface of the infant carrier for supporting the carrier.
In one embodiment, the frame of the device is configured to engage the removed seat element to secure the displaced seat element to the frame below the support section while an infant child carrier is supported on the frame support section. The seat element is also appropriately configured for being secured to the frame when removed from the support section. In one embodiment of the invention, the seat element is horizontal and forms a shelf for child care or other items when the support section is supporting an infant carrier. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, the device may be readily and easily converted between an infant carrier support and a high chair by the restaurant staff.
In another embodiment of the invention, the seat element is pivotally mounted to the frame and is operable for being selectively pivoted away from the support section. The support section, in turn, is configured to receive an infant carrier when the seat element is pivoted away therefrom, and is further operable for safely supporting the infant carrier above the floor surface.
In one embodiment of the invention, the frame includes side members which have U-shaped portions with open upper ends for receiving the infant child carrier. As will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art, the portions might also be characterized as C-shaped, depending upon how much of a cut-out section is provided at the top of the frame side members. The open ended, U-shaped portions of the side members form part of the support section of the frame and provide accommodation for the handle of the infant carrier so that the infant carrier rests securely in the support section. The support section is configured for containing a handle of an infant child carrier. Preferably, the seat element is pivotally mounted to the frame to be pivoted away from the upper support section and also slid downwardly on the frame to be suspended below the support section when the infant carrier is placed therein. To convert the child support device back to a high chair, or the toddler mode, the seat element is simply pivoted and slid upwardly and back into the support section.
In another embodiment of the invention, a multi-purpose child support device includes a frame with a base section and a support section positioned above the base section. The base section is configured for positioning on a floor surface. A seat element with a seat surface and back supports a toddler child in a sitting position so that the device acts as a high chair.
The support section has an upper edge which is configured for engaging the seat element, and particularly for engaging a lower edge of the seat element to support the seat element in a first position where the device acts as a high chair. The seat element is movably mounted to the frame and is movable to a second position displaced from the support section. With the seat element in the second position, the support section is configured to receive an infant child carrier and engage the carrier to prevent it from sliding off of the frame.
Various structures might be utilized in such an embodiment for securing the seat element in the first position or high chair position. For example, a groove and track arrangement, a male/female coupling arrangement and/or a hasp structure might be utilized. Alternatively, the seat element may be pivotally coupled to the support section for being pivoted between the first and second position.
The inventive device thus provides a single child support device which safely accommodates children of all ages, including infant children within a carrier. The safety provided by the device reduces a restaurant owner""s liability exposure. Restaurants only have to purchase one device to accommodate all children and thus do not have to maintain separate infant carrier support devices as well as traditional high chairs. The inventive device provides a safe and secure place for children during dining. Furthermore, the inventive device in the infant carrier form may be utilized for supporting an infant carrier while parents wait to be seated at a table. This eliminates the need for parents to hold the heavy infant carrier for a long period of time or to place the infant carrier on a cold and dirty ground surface. Still further, a substantial amount of valuable restaurant space is conserved by eliminating separate high chair and infant carrier support devices.